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<h1 align="center">Observ. LIV. Of a Louse.<br>
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    <p><font size="4">This is a Creature so officious, that 'twill be known to
      every one at one time or other, so busie, and so impudent, that it will
      be intruding it self in every ones company, and so proud and aspiring withall,
      that it fears not to trample on the best, and affects nothing so much as
      a Crown; feeds and lives very high, and that makes it so saucy, as to pull
      any one by the ears that comes in its way, and will never be quiet till
      it has drawn blood: it is troubled at nothing so much as at a man that scratches
      his head, as knowing that man is plotting and contriving some mischief against
      it, and that makes it oftentime sculk into some meaner and lower place, and
      run behind a mans back, though it go very much against the hair; which ill
      conditions of it having made it better known then trusted, would exempt me
      from making any further description of it, did not my faithful Mercury, my
      Microscope, bring me other information of it. </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">For this has discovered to me, by means of a very bright light
      cast on it, that it is a Creature of a very odd shape ; it has a head shap'd
      like that exprest in 35. Scheme marked with A, which seems almost Conical,
      but is a little flatted on the upper and under sides, at the biggest part
      of which, on either side behind the head (as it were, being the place where
      other Creatures ears stand) are placed its two black shining goggle eyes
      B B, looking backwards, and fenced round with several small cilia or hairs
      that incompass it, so that it seems this Creature has no very good foresight:
      It does not seem to have any eyelids, and therefore perhaps its eyes were
      so placed, that it might the better cleanse them with its forelegs; and perhaps
      this may be the reason, why they so much avoid and run from the light behind
      them, for being made to live in the shady and dark recesses of the hair,
      and thence probably their eye having a great aperture, the open and clear
      light, especially that of the Sun, must needs very much offend them; to secure
      these eyes from receiving any injury from the hairs through which it passes,
      it has two horns that grow before it, in the place where one would have thought
      the eyes should be; each of these C C have four joynts, which are fringed,
      as 'twere, with small brisles, from which to the tip of its snout D, the
      head seems very round and tapering, ending in a very sharp nose D, which
      seems to have a small hole, and to be the passage through which he sucks
      the blood. </font></p>
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    <p><img src="Octavo/bug2.jpg" width="537" height="348"></p>
    <p><font size="4">Now whereas it if be plac'd on its back, with its belly
      upwards, as it is in the 35. Scheme, it seems in several Positions to have
      a resemblance of chaps, or jaws, as is represented in the Figure by E E,
      yet in other postures those dark strokes disappear; and having kept several
      of them in a box for two or three dayes, so that for all that time they had
      nothing to feed on, I found, upon letting onecreep on my hand, that it immediately
      fell to sucking, and did neither seem to thrust its nose very deep into the
      skin, nor to open any kind of mouth, but I could plainly perceive a small
      current of blood, which came directly from its snout, and past into its belly;
      and about A there seem'd a contrivance, somewhat resembling a Pump, pair
      of Bellows, or Heart, for by a very swift systole and diastole the blood
      seem'd drawn from the nose, and forced into the body. </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">It did not seem at all, though I viewed it a good while as
      it was sucking, to thrust more of its nose into the skin then the very snout
      D, nor did it cause the least discernable pain, and yet the blood seem'd
      to run through its head very quick and freely, so that it seems there is
      no part of the skin but the blood is dispers'd into, nay, even into the
      cuticula; for had it thrust its whole nose in from D to C C, it would not
      have amounted to the supposed thickness of that tegument, the length of
      the nose being not more then a three hundredth part of an inch. </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">It has six legs, covered with a very transparent shell,
      and joynted exactly like a Crab's, or Lobster's; each leg is divided into
      six parts by these joynts, and those have here and there several small hairs;
      and at the end of each leg it has two claws, very properly adapted for its
      peculiar use, being thereby inabled to walk very securely both on the skin
      and hair; and indeed this contrivance of the feet is very curious, and could
      not be made more commodiously and compendiously, for performing both these
      requisite motions, of walking and climbing up the hair of a mans head, then
      it is : for, by having the lesser claw (a) set so much short of the bigger
      (b) when it walks on the skin the shorter touches not, and then the feet
      are the same with those of a Mite, and several other small Insects, but by
      means of the small joynts of the longer claw it can bend it round, and so
      with both claws take hold of a hair, in the manner represented in the Figure,
      the long transparent Cylinder F F F, being a Man's hair held by it. </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">The Thorax seem'd cas'd with another kind of substance then
      the belly, namely, with a thin transparent horny substance, which upon the fasting
      of the Creature did not grow flaccid; through this I could plainly see the
      blood, suck'd from my hand, to be variously distributed, and mov'd to and
      fro; and about G there seem'd a pretty big white substance, which seem'd
      to be moved within its thorax; besides, there appear'd very many small milk-white
      vessels, which crost over the breast between the legs, out of which, on
      either side, are many small branchings, these seem'd to be the veins and
      arteries, for that which is analogus to blood in all Insects is milk-white.
      </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">The belly is covered with a transparent substance likewise,
      but more resembling a skin then a shell, for 'tis grain'd all over the belly
      just like the skin in the palms of a man's hand, and when the belly is empty,
      grows very flaccid and wrinkled ; at the upper end of this is placed the
      stomach H H, and perhaps also the white spot I I may be the liver, or pancreas,
      which by the peristaltick motion of the guts, is a little mov'd to and fro,
      not with a systole and diastole, but rather with a thronging or justling
      motion. </font></p>
    <p><font size="4">Viewing one of these Creatures, after it had fasted two
      dayes, all the hinder part was lank and flaccid, and the white spot I I
      hardly mov'd, most of the white branchings disappear'd, and most also of
      the redness or sucked blood in the guts, the peristaltick motion of which
      was scarce discernable; but upon the suffering it to suck, it presently
      fill'd the skin of the belly, and of the six scolop'd embosments on either side,
      as full as it could be stuft ; the stomach and guts were as full as they
      could hold; the peristaltick motion of the gut grew quick, and the justling
      motion of I I accordingly ; multitudes of milk-white vessels seem'd quickly
      filled, and turgid, which were perhaps the veins and arteries, and the Creature
      was so greedy, that though it could not contain more, yet it continued sucking
      as fast as ever, and as fast emptying it self behind : the digestion of this
      Creature must needs be very quick, for though I perceiv'd the blood thicker
      and blacker when suck'd, yet, when in the guts, it was of a very lovely
      ruby colour, and that part of it, which was digested into the veins, seemed
      white; whence it appears, that a further digestion of blood may make it
      milk, at least of a resembling colour : What is else observable in the figure
      of this Creature, maybe seen by the 35. Scheme.</font></p>
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